'Tuning-in’ to ‘tune out’: What mediates engagement experiences with music on-the-go
Jun Quan Choo, Marianella Chamorro‐Koc, Rafael Gómez, Mary C. Broughton · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · 2019
People use music as a wellbeing resource in commute, ‘tuning-in’ to ‘tune out’ to mitigate stresses. These studies typically assume a listener’s mental representation of music. Instead, a listener’s engagement with music is more than a mental representation in real life; music moves people. People in commute 'tune-in' to music using portable music devices like headphones. In 'tuning-in' to music, people physicalize movement- synchronizing their heads or hands to the beat, play “air-piano” or imagine gestures through the use of portable music devices. These movements may help them to 'tune-out', temporary distancing themselves from their immediate commute environment. Research in music perception lags development of portable music devices, like headphones compensated for hearing loss and haptic devices that afford users to feel bass frequencies of music. This research explores what constitutes embodied interactions with music and how a combination of emergent devices- headphones and haptics can enhance these interactions in commute. Video observations record how a participant synchronizes and gestures with music, interacting with devices, music and context in real-time. Retrospective interviews probe at a participant’s quality of music experience in 'tuning-in' to 'tune-out', through understanding the mediators of causality, presence and flow and how these relate to his experience and wellbeing. Interviews corroborate with video data to provide an enriched understanding of context of a user’s interaction with music and device as a dynamic process in qualitative methodology. Results serve twofold objectives: (1) They inform technology providers with the knowledge to design and adapt devices for based on commuter’s embodied interactions with devices. (2) They provide technology providers, concert makers and transportation operators an understanding of commuter’s embodied interactions with music and devices for collaborations.